Ant is constantly taking us on new adventures around the world in all our Supernova magazine. The supernova team has decided to follow her lead, so pack your bags and head straight for your imagination station as we head to Paris! There are many cool places to visit in Paris, and Notre Dame should definitely be on your sight-seeing bucket list and here’s why!
A Gothic Masterpiece
The Notre-Dame or ‘Our Lady of Paris’ in its English translation was built between 1163 and 1345. It is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture, through its detailed and extravagant architectural design. The most noticeable Gothic features in the Notre Dame design are its rose windows, flying buttress, and a beautifully rib patterned, vaulted ceiling that reaches 35m high. The cathedral also features 84 panels of decorated glass spread over four circles, painted with images of Saints, Apostles, and Bishops.
Music to your ears
The Notre Dame cathedral, like all other cathedrals, also has various instruments to make music with. The cathedral has the world’s largest organ, with more than 8000 pipes and 115 stops on five manuals and pedals. In simple terms: it’s huge! Enormous bells, such as the Emmanuel bell that weighs 13 tons which can be found in the cathedral, and which has been rung on major historical events and holidays since its creation in the 15th century.
Top news: A devastating fire
It hasn’t always been happy tunes and pretty views with the Notre Dame. Unfortunately a huge roof fire broke out on 15 April 2019 while it was undergoing restoration and renovation. The fire lasted for 15 hours before it was put out which damaged the wooden spire and most of the lead-covered wooden roof. This was devastating as the Notre Dame is one of the oldest wooden structures in Paris and featured large amounts of oak wood!
A Book to the Rescue
Despite all the beauty of the Cathedral a lot of people didn’t know or care about the Notre Dame or its beautiful architecture. Victor Hugo came to the rescue with his famous book, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1831. Though it seems like a heartwarming story about the acceptance of a person that was hated for being different, Victor Hugo actually wanted the book to create awareness on the value of the cathedral’s architecture. At the time, the cathedral was often neglected, destroyed, and defaced. After reading the book, people became interested in the cathedral’s beautiful architecture, which led to a huge restoration project between 1844 and 1864.
Not-so-French
The Notre-Dame cathedral is now a Catholic icon, but it was actually built off the foundations of a Roman city. In the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia, a temple was built to the Roman god Jupiter, before then turning into a Romanesque church. Later, the church’s structure was destroyed, but the foundation and even some of the sculptures were reused for the initial construction of the Notre Dame cathedral.
Notre Dame is the definitely the place to be, we hope to have inspired your travel bucket list! If you enjoy learning about all these beautiful travel destinations, Ant has way more travel destinations waiting for you!
